Construction, Cost, Repair, and Management. 401 
that 80 tons of granite used on a turnpike, kept the road in better 
order than 200 tons spread all over the surface ; with this addi- 
tional advantage, that the road was always good for the horses' 
feet, whereas by the other method the road was almost unfit for 
traffic until the stone had worked in. 
Manual Labour. — From the Parliamentary returns, it appears 
that the cost of manual labour on the highways and turnpike- 
roads throughout England and Wales is nearly double that ot 
materials. This must arise from the use of inferior material for 
surface-repair. However desirable and economical it may be to 
employ sufficient labour so as always to keep the road in thorough 
repair, vet by the use of hard material able to bear the wear and 
tear of traffic, an immense amount of labour is saved, and the road 
is kept in better order. The use of soft limestone is an instance 
of the greater proportionate cost of manual labour; the stone 
put on in early winter has all to be scraped off in the shape 
of mud before the spring, and labour must be continually 
employed in breaking stone, laying on fresh coats and scraping 
them off again. On many gravel-roads, owing to the softness 
of the foundation, men are continually employed in making the 
surface of the roads pervious to wet, by raking about the loose 
material ; this looseness allows the first waggon that passes 
along to leave a distinct track, which every succeeding vehicle 
follows, until three ruts are worn in the centre of the road ; these 
gradually deepen and form receptacles for holding the water. 
VVhen these ruts have been worn to the depth of four or five 
inches, the roadman is sent to rake them in. In some parts of 
the kingdom this custom has become so prevalent, that the prac- 
tice is resorted to of raking a small ridge of the loose gravel in 
the track worn by the horses' feet, which is left standing up so 
as to drive the horses into a fresh track. The consequence of 
such a system is, that the surface of the road is always loose and 
rotten ; every shower of rain fills these tracks with water ; and 
the material, be it stone or gravel, is soon worked into mud. A 
properly kept road ought, both for traction and wear, to have its 
surface so hard that the wheels of passing waggons shall not be 
able to make anv impression, and the less the surface-materials 
are disturbed the better for the road. In agricultural districts, 
where the traffic consists principally of heavily laden carts and 
waggons, generally going one way and not meeting in sufficient 
numbers to obliterate the direct track, the tendencv, where the 
■country is level, is to keep in one line in the centre of the road, 
and so to cause ruts, each succeeding vehicle making the track 
so much more easy to follow and difficult to avoid. 
The very hardest paved road will wear away if the whole 
